Kopin Sees Another Difficult Quarter in Wearables Market

Display optics firm Kopin Corp. suffered a fourth straight quarter of net losses, citing rising development costs in the emerging field of wearable technologies.

Net loss for the first quarter of 2014 was $9.1 million, compared with a net loss of $9.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. The company reported earnings of $21.6 million in the first quarter of 2013, which it attributed to the sale of its III-V product line, including all of its equity interest in Kopin Taiwan Corp. to IQE plc.

The company projects 2014 revenue of $18 million to $22 million and a consolidated net loss of $32 million to $40 million.

Kopin’s product line includes ultra-small displays, optics, speech enhancement technology, software, low-power chipsets, and ergonomically designed headset computing systems.

President and CEO Dr. John C.C. Fan pointed to growing interest in wearables as grounds for optimism.

“Microsoft and Intel made investments in wearable technology companies, and Samsung — as well as many smaller players — showed signs of a strong commitment to wearables,” he said. “These events, as well as our own very successful wearable technology conference in February, demonstrate that the momentum is building, and we are positioning ourselves to be a key player in the technology ecosystem that is developing.”

Fan said Kopin added marketing and business development personnel, and began the production readiness process in anticipation of ramping up in the second half of 2014.

Revenues for the first quarter of 2014 were $4.7 million, compared with $6.3 million for the first quarter of 2013, primarily reflecting a decline in sales of display products for military applications and partially offset by an increase in sales of components for wearables.

Research and development expenses for the first quarter of 2014 were $5.1 million compared with $4.2 million for the first quarter of 2013, reflecting an increase in costs to develop the wearable and military technologies.

For more information, visit: www.kopin.com.